


Lucid Nightmares

by picometre



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Skeletons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-07-29 03:06:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7667809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/picometre/pseuds/picometre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An experimental, dream-like and death-flavored Ensemble Stars AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Creeping Skeleton and the Flying Man

**Author's Note:**

> This is a strange project. The summary might sound cryptic, but it's sort of accurate. This is a writing experiment, based off some of the dreams I've had in the past and featuring Enstars characters because I thought some of the dreams I had would fit certain characters well. So yeah... basically, this is a dream (or nightmare) world AU for Enstars, with probably everything and anything prone to happening, which might sound strange, I admit.
> 
> Fair warning, the dreams used as a base often contain dark, grotesque and/or shocking elements. As such, the fic's rating might change from Mature to Explicit, and some other warnings may appear in the future. Please be careful while reading this, and take it with a grain of salt.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Midori Takamine: Saut de l'Ange edition.

Midori woke up in the middle of the night. He needed a drink. 

He blindly walked to the kitchen and lit up the lights. Once it was done, he opened a drawer, took a knife from it and walked up to the sink. A simple turn of a faucet handle, and water was free. Midori was about to take his glass of water and drew the blade against the flow of water. At the same time, he approached his left wrist near the water and closer to the knife. The blade was dangerously close to his wrist now, and a simple twist would be enough to draw blood, which would then be washed away by the water. Then, something clicked.  
Midori let go of the knife, making it hit the sink with a clunking sound. He looked as water splashed onto the blade for a short moment before sighing, turning off the water and going back to bed. He wasn't thirsty anymore.

A few minutes passed, but Midori couldn't fall back asleep. He got up and sat on his bed again. He remained still for a long moment, looking down at the ground, and breathing slowly. Perhaps he just needed to relax. After all, he was on the verge of self harming without being aware of it just a few minutes ago.

"Without being aware of it?"

He heard a whisper. It felt like something which did not belong in this world. Midori tried to ignore it, assuming he was just too tired, but soon, he could hear noise coming from under his bed and the chill feeling of a hand tightly holding onto his left arm. It was too hard to ignore now, and Midori simply looked at his left to see a skeleton staring at him, holding his arm. For just a moment, Midori wanted to scream, but he couldn't.  
The skeleton made a hushing gesture with its free hand, and strangely enough, Midori started to relax.

"Good..." The skeleton's otherworldly voice was the only thing that could be heard in the small bedroom. "There is no need to be afraid... after all, I am a part of you." Pause. "I won't harm you. I will just give you a little helping hand. Death will take you eventually, it's the only thing you need when you're sick of life, so you should bask in the comfort of my presence while you still can."

Suddenly, Midori grew drowsy, and fell asleep again.

The next morning, when he woke up, Midori tried not to think about the skeleton, but it was impossible. No matter how hard he tried, he could still feel its presence over him, and the more he could feel its presence, the more he felt like dying would free him from it. He went out of his apartment, thinking that some fresh air could make him think about other things.  
Except he went out the wrong way. Instead of going outside by the front door, he had just jumped from the balcony of the 5th floor, and it's only when he was in mid-air that he realized it. The fall was abnormally slow, or maybe it was just an impression Midori had because as soon as he realized his current state, he also started seeing multiple giant skeletons popping out of the ground, with their mouths gaping open, ready to swallow him whole.  
Midori closed his eyes. He wanted to die, but he never wanted to be eaten by skeletons. Was it ridiculous for someone who wanted death to fear it right as it was about to happen?

"Takamine!"

Midori opened his eyes when he heard a scream. He looked at the origin of the scream and vaguely recognized a male figure jumping, probably to save him. Midori sighed, thinking it was useless, but... looking at it, the man looked as if he was flying.

Impact.  
Blackout.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I TRIED SO HARD NOT TO MAKE THIS END IN A CLIFFHANGER but... it was so tempting... also is accidental suicide attempt a thing because, er, you know,


	2. Bone Crusher

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is that the beginning of a quest, I wonder?

Midori woke up a few hours later in his bedroom. It took him a long moment to be fully awake, and when he came back to his senses and sat up, he realized he didn't die.

He was almost disappointed. Sure, he didn't expect actually being on the verge of dying and being aware of it only when it was happening, but he felt like dying would have been better than staying alive. He looked at his hands and thought that with only them available, the only way he could take his own life would be to choke himself, and perhaps he could do it without even realizing it. After all, hadn't he just attempted suicide without being aware of it?  
Midori thought about the skeleton again. It did say it would give him a helping hand, and that all he had to do was to make himself comfortable. Perhaps not realizing he was about to effectively kill himself was the kind of comfort and helping hand the skeleton brought him.

He then thought about the man who saved him. Surely, it must have been someone he knew, since he had screamed Midori's last name. But Midori couldn't remember seeing his face. All he remembered was a man who looked as if he were flying.

"Oh, Takamine, you're awake."

Midori turned to the voice and recognized an old face: Morisawa Chiaki.  
Chiaki used to be his senior in high school. An idiot with admiration for superheroes who always wanted to protect others and play the hero, but often injured himself in the process.  
Midori thought that he would drop the hero stunts after a few years out of high school, but it was apparently not the case.

"Morisawa-senpai, huh..." Pause. "I knew it. Only you would try to play the hero like that."  
"Well, I did save you, so I guess that makes me your hero at least."

Seeing Chiaki's familiar smile made Midori look away.

"You would have been my hero if you had let me die."  
"Is that so?"

Chiaki sounded strange. Midori couldn't help but look back at him, only to notice his usual smile had changed and was much more different than what Midori was used to.

"Takamine, mind if I take a moment to grab something?"

Midori didn't reply. He watched as Chiaki went out of the room, confused. He heard rummaging in the rooms, and felt gradually uneasy as noises became louder and he could hear sounds of things getting thrown around and breaking. Then, it stopped.  
Only Chiaki's footsteps could be heard. Midori focused on the ground, trying to relax. There was no way Chiaki would do anything, right?

"I'm back!"

Midori looked at Chiaki going back into the room and immediately noticed he was holding a sledgehammer. Did Midori always have that in his apartment? More importantly, why the hell was Chiaki holding that?

"M-Morisawa-senpai...? What are you doing with this?"

Chiaki's face had that strange smile on it again.

"You said I would be your hero if I let you die, right?"  
"Y-Yes, but..."

Midori couldn't bring himself to talk anymore when he saw Chiaki's expression change. His smile had become twisted and everything about him at that precise moment seemed to reek of murderous intent. This was not the Chiaki Midori used to know, it was someone – or something – else.  
Midori was absolutely terrified as he heard Chiaki talk again.

"If I crush your bones and kill you, I'll be your hero for good."

After saying that, Chiaki dashed forward and laughed just as he was about to hit Midori with the sledgehammer.

\--

Chiaki got startled and immediately rushed to his bedroom when he heard an ear-piercing scream.

As expected, his junior Takamine Midori was awake, but in an unexpected way. He was screaming and shaking, terrified out of his guts. Chiaki ran up to him.

"Takamine! Takamine, get it together!"

The terrified boy didn't seem to have noticed him, but at least he had stopped screaming. His eyes stared at the emptiness as he was still shaking and breathing heavily. It took a long moment for him to finally calm down.

"Takamine... are you okay?"

Midori's look slowly shifted to him, and he backed off as soon as he saw his face.

"Get away from me."  
"Takamine?"  
"Stay away from me! You already crushed my bones, isn't it enough?!"  
"What are you talking about? Your bones are fine."

Midori looked at himself and around Chiaki's room.

"You... you're right. I'm not injured. And this is not my bedroom." He sighed. "That nightmare felt so real."  
"If you want to talk about it, you can come to me anytime. I'll listen to you."  
"You wouldn't understand, Morisawa-senpai."

Chiaki didn't reply and smiled, although he felt bitter about it. He wanted to tell Midori he would understand, that he had gone through similar things, but he didn't insist. He left it at that, and waited for Midori to talk again.

"So... you saved me back there, right, Morisawa-senpai?"  
"Yeah, I did. You wouldn't be in my room if that wasn't the case."

Midori got up.

"I'll leave, I don't want to bother you anymore. Thanks for taking care of me, Morisawa-senpai."

Chiaki watched as Midori started walking away. Midori turned around halfway, and Chiaki felt a chill as he saw a skeleton-like figure appear right besides Midori. The skeleton was staring at Midori and grabbed his jaw. It disappeared as soon as Chiaki blinked.

"Morisawa-senpai... do you have any sharp stuff laying around? Like... a butcher knife? Although a cutter would do the job too..."

Midori seemed completely out of it. Chiaki was used to him expressing he wanted to die back in high school, but this was on a whole new level. Midori's eyes were empty, soulless.

"Not replying? Eh..." The puppet-like Midori smiled. "I guess I'll just go find out myself."

Midori turned his back to Chiaki and resumed his walking. Chiaki's immediate reaction was to run to him and grab his hand.

"You won't go anywhere."  
"Why? Are you afraid I'll do something with the knives, Morisawa-senpai?"  
"You... whatever you are, you're not Takamine, and I won't let you harm him."

The skeleton appeared again and talked directly to Chiaki.

"You can't save him from killing himself. That's what he wants, so it'll happen anyway."

The skeleton disappeared.

"M-Morisawa-senpai? Why are you holding my hand?"

Midori seemed to have come back to his senses, and Chiaki let go of his hands.

"Sorry, Takamine. Strange things happened."  
"Strange things keep happening lately..."  
"Takamine..."

Chiaki stopped midway.

"Hm?"  
"Forget it. I'll walk you back home."  
"I don't need that."  
"I watched you fall from the fifth floor of a building. I want to make sure you go back home in one piece."

Midori sighed, but didn't object. Chiaki led the way to the exit and froze just as he got out of his apartment followed by Midori. Indeed, he was faced to a strange sight: The hallways and staircases of the building had completely changed and now seemed to be covered in a flesh-like matter. When Chiaki looked down, he noticed eyes on the floor staring at him and Midori. His first instinct was to tell Midori to run and lead the way as he ran down the staircase. With each step came a disgusting squelching sound, which disgusted Chiaki, but there was no time for him to be disgusted. He kept running, and sometimes turned back to see if Midori was following him, and after a couple of minutes, both of them were out of the flesh building.

"What the hell..."

Midori had said that between two breathes, and Chiaki shared his feelings. It was pitch black outside, although he was sure it was about 2pm about half an hour ago, and the town looked nothing like usual. Some buildings were in ruin, others were covered in the same flesh-like matter as Chiaki's building, and a few ancient-looking buildings seemed to have popped out from the ground. The air was hard to breathe, and the stench of something rotting filled Chiaki's nostrils. As soon as he smelled it, he put a hand to his mouth, trying to refrain himself from throwing up.

"Morisawa-senpai?"

Midori looked surprised as he saw Chiaki putting a hand to his mouth as if he tried to refrain from throwing up. He looked around and quickly realized why: the sight of the flesh covered buildings in the town was disgusting, and the horrible stench that came from them started making Midori feel nauseous. He wanted to get away from it as soon as possible, and without thinking, his legs led him to one of the less damaged ruined buildings in town.

When he entered the building, he felt like he could finally breathe. The dominating smell was a smell akin to wet concrete after a rainy day, which was an improvement from that of rotting meat. It was impossible to see around, so Midori went around the room carefully touching the walls, trying to guess what the room he had entered was like.

A sudden ray of light started going around the room. Midori turned to its origin to see Chiaki holding a flashlight and with a concerned look when he saw him.

"Takamine! What were you doing?"  
"I... I don't know, I just ran here and I was starting to... touch around, I guess."  
"Let's explore this place together then."

Chiaki went around the room and Midori closely followed him. The flashlight's ray revealed that the place was laid out like a regular building. No dead body or anything of that sort was found. It had simply been abandoned. There were windows, elevator cages and a staircase. Chiaki went to the nearest elevator and tried calling it.

"Hm... Nothing."  
"I'm not surprised."

Midori yawned and surprised himself.

"Tired, Takamine?"  
"Yeah..."  
"This place seems safe. We should rest there."  
"I've got a bad feeling about this. We don't know what might be creeping in the rest of this building... we could probably get attacked, or something."  
"Well, wouldn't that make us kind of like horror movie protagonists?"  
"I _hate_ horror movies."

An awkward silence ensued. Chiaki kept looking around then broke the silence.

"We could sleep near the building's entrance. It's not the best, but at least if something comes from inside the building to attack us, we'll be able to get out faster."  
"... Whatever. I just want this to be over."

Chiaki sat against the wall near the entrance and Midori did the same, distancing himself from Chiaki beforehand. Nothing was said between them. Midori thought that, since they'd be spending the night here, he could as well make himself somewhat comfortable. He laid down on his side and closed his eyes. He fell asleep within a couple of minutes, barely having time to hope that this had just been a massive nightmare.

"Good night, Takamine."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> since this au is based on my own dreams, i might as well start mentioning the part inspired from my dreams at the end of each chapter. for this chapter, it was the bone crushing stuff. the flesh hallways were also vaguely inspired by a recurring dream i used to have...
> 
> i had a lot of trouble w/ honorifics. i mean, i didn't really know if i had to use morisawa-senpai or not when midori was talking because i'm placing this au around college age. i mean, i picture the enstars first years being college freshmen or sophomores in this au. i guess i'll edit the honorifics if people end up getting bothered? (tho i'd need feedback for that, haha...)
> 
> edit (16.09.16): edited this chapter in the end because i was unhappy about the way i ended it. i know, it's been over a month, but eh... i'd rather be late than never do it, you know?


End file.
